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| Image from stevegarufi.com |
Saturday, 23 October 2010
Kaktus: Penyiraman dan Serangan Cendawan
Tips Saat Membeli Tanaman Hias
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| Image from ksupointer.mypointer.info |
- Pertama, janganlah malu untuk bertanya kepada pedagang tanaman hias mengenai tanaman yang akan dibeli. Bagaimana perawatannya, termasuk didalamnya penyiraman, pemupukan, dsb.
- Jangan lupa perhitungkan budget yang anda miliki. Beberapa tanaman hias memiliki harga yang cukup tinggi sehingga sebaiknya anda memberinya perlakuan dan perawatan yang intensif. Selain itu, perhitungkan pula waktu luang yang anda miliki untuk merawatnya.
- Apabila memang anda tidak memiliki waktu luang khusus untuk merawat tanaman, ada baiknya anda membeli tanaman yang tidak 'rewel' dalam perawatannya. Misalnya, Kaktus, sansevieria, atau mungkin Bromelia.
- Apabila anda berminat untuk membeli tanaman yang memiliki kemampuan untuk menyaring debu, sebagai buffer atau filter alami bagi polutan (seperti yang adik saya keluhkan, bahwa kami tinggal di 'gurun'), pilihlah tanaman yang memiliki daun kecil, tepi daun bergerigi, permukaan daun bertekstur kasar, atau memiliki bulu halus dan berduri. Contohnya, cemara kipas (Thuja orientalis), glodongan tiang (Polialthia longifolia), tanjung (Mimusoph elengi), Sansevieria, atau bunga mentega (Nerium oleander). Tanaman-tanaman ini bisa anda tanam di pekarangan anda.
- Sewaktu memilih tanaman, perhatikan bagian-bagian tanaman. Daunnya, batangnya, dan akarnya. Kalau tanamannya berbunga, anda juga bisa mengecek bunganya. Untuk mengecek akar, goyang-goyangkan saja pangkal batang tanaman. Kalau goyah, artinya akar tanaman tersebut memang belum tumbuh sempurna (mungkin baru di stek atau pisah anakan). Khusus tanaman hias daun, carilah tanaman dengan daun yang cerah, segar, dan kompak susunannya. Cek dan pastikan pula kalau tanaman tidak sakit atau terserang hama.
- Kalau anda berminat dengan tanaman hias bunga, carilah tanaman yang memiliki batang kokoh, lurus, dan percabangan merata. Carilah yang tunas bunganya banyak, agar anda bisa menikmati bunganya lebih lama.
- Sewaktu sampai dirumah, letakkan tanaman di tempat teduh dan lembap, karena tanaman memerlukan adaptasi. Lakukan selama kurang lebih dua hari. Pisahkan tanaman yang baru dibeli dari tanaman lain untuk mengantisipasi penularan penyakit bila ada. Kalau memang diperlukan, anda dapat mengganti media tanam dengan yang baru untuk memperbaiki kandungan haranya.
- Apabila anda bermaksud mengganti pot, perhatikan terlebih dahulu karakter tanaman anda. Sebagai acuan, pot tanah liat cocok untuk tanaman yang membutuhkan kelembapan tinggi (Misal, anggrek atau paku-pakuan). Pot plastik cocok untuk tanaman yang menyukai kondisi lebih kering, seperti kaktus, atau euphorbia. Pot keramik bisa anda gunakan sebagai pot pelapis. Mengapa pot pelapis? tentu saja karena anda harus memperhitungkan bahwa tanaman anda perlu repotting (^_^); pot keramik cenderung lebih berat dan repot apabila tanaman memerlukan perawatan yang intensif.
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
The Agriculture before Independence
Here I found an article about the history of Agriculture in Indonesia from 19th century until the age before the Independence in 1945. I summarize the article of "Sejarah Pertanian Indonesia" from sejarahpertanian.blogspot.com
The Era of 19th Century
1811-1816 : In this period, a rebbelion happened, as a response to a system called 'land tax' introduced by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. The rebbelion known as 'Perang Jawa' or 'Perang Diponegoro'. It was the dissapointment of the feudal lords which triggered the war and born the rebbelion of kingdom.
1830-1870: This is the era of cultuur stelsel forced by General Governor Johannes van den Bosch, where each villages must set aside 20% of the land to be planted by export commodities such coffees or sugar cane. Its yield were sold to colonial government in a fixed prices. For villagers who don't have or own a land need to work 75 days in a year for government. Practically, those rule became meaningless since most of agricultural area were obligated to plant the export commodities. The cultuur stelsel itself became the most exploitative era within the economical practice of Nederlands-Indië (We call it 'Hindia-Belanda'). I don't know whether there's a difference between VOC monopoly system and Government system, but it was said that the cultuur stelsel was even harder and ruthless, since there was a revenue target government much-needed. Farmers who had to sold their harvest to VOC now not only had to plant specified commodities but also sold the harvest with a fixed prices from government. Since then, the cultuur stelsel gave the biggest asset in the golden age of Nederlands-Indie Colonial Government from 1835 to 1940. For the advantages of this system, Van den Bosch awarded on December 25 1839 wit a title Graaf.
1870: The law of Agrarian born and contained within Agrarische Wet 1870. In this law the Erfpacht right was guaranteed for 75 years, and also guarantee the right owner to use the Eigendom right, and gave them a chance to use their land as a collateral loan. The Agrarische Wet 1870 was affected by private capital owners to make a deal with many big plantation in their colony, since in the cultuur stelsel era they could only rent the land.
1890 : This is the beginning of the Ethnic Politic, where socialist in Nederland act as an oposition. Since then, the public services are getting better, the chances to take an educational course are improving, and villages autonomy getting stronger.
The Era before The Independence (1900-1945)
1918: In this year, The General Agriculture Experiment Station or 'Balai Besar Penyelidikan Pertanian' (I don't know how to translate it in English for its first name, but then it was called Algemeen Proefstation voor den Landbouw) were built. Since 1949 it was changed into 'Jawatan Penyelidikan Pertanian' or it may be translated as The Bureau of Agricultural Investigation. In 1952 it was became 'Balai Besar Penyelidikan Pertanian' / General Agriculture Experiment Station (Algemeen Proefstation voor den Landbouw). For the next years its name still changing. In 1966 the name changed into 'Lembaga Pusat Penelitian Pertanian'. In 1980 as 'Balai Penelitian Tanaman Bogor'. In 1994 as 'Balai Penelitian Bioteknologi dan Sumberdaya Genetik Pertanian. From 2003 until present it is called 'Balai Besar Penelitian dan Pengembangan Bioteknologi dan Sumberdaya Genetik Pertanian' (BB-BIOGEN) or Indonesian Center for Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetic Resource Research and Development (ICABIOGRD).
The Era of 19th Century
1811-1816 : In this period, a rebbelion happened, as a response to a system called 'land tax' introduced by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. The rebbelion known as 'Perang Jawa' or 'Perang Diponegoro'. It was the dissapointment of the feudal lords which triggered the war and born the rebbelion of kingdom.
1830-1870: This is the era of cultuur stelsel forced by General Governor Johannes van den Bosch, where each villages must set aside 20% of the land to be planted by export commodities such coffees or sugar cane. Its yield were sold to colonial government in a fixed prices. For villagers who don't have or own a land need to work 75 days in a year for government. Practically, those rule became meaningless since most of agricultural area were obligated to plant the export commodities. The cultuur stelsel itself became the most exploitative era within the economical practice of Nederlands-Indië (We call it 'Hindia-Belanda'). I don't know whether there's a difference between VOC monopoly system and Government system, but it was said that the cultuur stelsel was even harder and ruthless, since there was a revenue target government much-needed. Farmers who had to sold their harvest to VOC now not only had to plant specified commodities but also sold the harvest with a fixed prices from government. Since then, the cultuur stelsel gave the biggest asset in the golden age of Nederlands-Indie Colonial Government from 1835 to 1940. For the advantages of this system, Van den Bosch awarded on December 25 1839 wit a title Graaf.
1870: The law of Agrarian born and contained within Agrarische Wet 1870. In this law the Erfpacht right was guaranteed for 75 years, and also guarantee the right owner to use the Eigendom right, and gave them a chance to use their land as a collateral loan. The Agrarische Wet 1870 was affected by private capital owners to make a deal with many big plantation in their colony, since in the cultuur stelsel era they could only rent the land.
1890 : This is the beginning of the Ethnic Politic, where socialist in Nederland act as an oposition. Since then, the public services are getting better, the chances to take an educational course are improving, and villages autonomy getting stronger.
The Era before The Independence (1900-1945)
1918: In this year, The General Agriculture Experiment Station or 'Balai Besar Penyelidikan Pertanian' (I don't know how to translate it in English for its first name, but then it was called Algemeen Proefstation voor den Landbouw) were built. Since 1949 it was changed into 'Jawatan Penyelidikan Pertanian' or it may be translated as The Bureau of Agricultural Investigation. In 1952 it was became 'Balai Besar Penyelidikan Pertanian' / General Agriculture Experiment Station (Algemeen Proefstation voor den Landbouw). For the next years its name still changing. In 1966 the name changed into 'Lembaga Pusat Penelitian Pertanian'. In 1980 as 'Balai Penelitian Tanaman Bogor'. In 1994 as 'Balai Penelitian Bioteknologi dan Sumberdaya Genetik Pertanian. From 2003 until present it is called 'Balai Besar Penelitian dan Pengembangan Bioteknologi dan Sumberdaya Genetik Pertanian' (BB-BIOGEN) or Indonesian Center for Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetic Resource Research and Development (ICABIOGRD).
Indonesian Organic Farming Issue
Recently, I was reading about 'organic farming' from Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (IAARD), and getting interested by the topic they made up. I don't know whether their paradigm of organic farming are the same with most of academicians from universities or not (since I found that not all of my lecturer support it, due to some polemic which have been occured in Indonesia), but still, it has a value to mention it here, for why we still use 'inorganic matters' and not fully turn around to organic farming.
The organic farming in Indonesia were started since people aware of dangerously chemical compound and their usage in agriculture. Some people said, it is good to act wisely by choosing a healthy food for our live. A healthy life style with a slogan "Back to Nature" as a new trend in daily people lives. They reach this "life style" by using more (or even 'only') organic farming products. All they know (most of Indonesian whom only follow agricultural issue as a 'gossip' element) that chemical pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and anything which related to "*something* chemical" is dangerous. The lack of agricultural education become the main problem which why sometimes people become more 'afraid' of most agricultural product.
I mentioned that organic farming become a polemic in Indonesia, since this country depend their lives by its food production. For few decades, Indonesia has an intensive utilization of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Most crop varieties were assembled to be responsives to fertilizer. So without a high amount of fertilizer, the amount of crop yields will be falling. Not only fertilizer, the application of pesticides are also high. Once, I was placed in a city of central java. There, I found out that it is hard for farmers to lower the frequencies and concentration of application. It doesn't mean that they don't know about the dangers of high concentration pesticides, but because they don't want to lose their harvest just because of pests (they need money from selling their product, right?). Some people try to predict the loses of yield if plants are not trated with pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and it could reach almost half of yield itself. We, Indonesian people, must choose, between a 'healthy' food or starvation for our people.
The organic farming in Indonesia were started since people aware of dangerously chemical compound and their usage in agriculture. Some people said, it is good to act wisely by choosing a healthy food for our live. A healthy life style with a slogan "Back to Nature" as a new trend in daily people lives. They reach this "life style" by using more (or even 'only') organic farming products. All they know (most of Indonesian whom only follow agricultural issue as a 'gossip' element) that chemical pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and anything which related to "*something* chemical" is dangerous. The lack of agricultural education become the main problem which why sometimes people become more 'afraid' of most agricultural product.
I mentioned that organic farming become a polemic in Indonesia, since this country depend their lives by its food production. For few decades, Indonesia has an intensive utilization of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Most crop varieties were assembled to be responsives to fertilizer. So without a high amount of fertilizer, the amount of crop yields will be falling. Not only fertilizer, the application of pesticides are also high. Once, I was placed in a city of central java. There, I found out that it is hard for farmers to lower the frequencies and concentration of application. It doesn't mean that they don't know about the dangers of high concentration pesticides, but because they don't want to lose their harvest just because of pests (they need money from selling their product, right?). Some people try to predict the loses of yield if plants are not trated with pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and it could reach almost half of yield itself. We, Indonesian people, must choose, between a 'healthy' food or starvation for our people.
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